Well bloggers, it’s about that time again. Yep, it’s This Week in History! We’ve got the Battle of Okinawa, the Angora Fire, and Veronica Guerin.  Care to stick around?  I think we’ve got quite a week in front of us…..

June 23, 1945: The Battle of Okinawa ends when the Imperial Japanese Army forces fall apart on Mabuni.
The Battle of Okinawa was significant to WWII, as it was just weeks before the atomic bombings.

If you’re interested in this region of the world, wars aside, than please check out Genealogies of Orientalism: History, Theory, Politics, by Edmund Burke III for a close look.

June 24, 2007: Angora Fire starts near South Lake Tahoe, California destroying over two hundred buildings in the first two days alone.

Wildfire and Americans, by Roger G. Kennedy, is an appeal on behalf of the author to begin looking at natural disasters as possessing more of a human origination. How do we contribute as humans to the new face of wildfire?

June 25, 1966: Congolese basketball star, Dikembe Mutombo is born.

Mutombo won the NBA Defensive Player of the Year award four times, and when he was 40 he was the oldest player in the league. To get a closer look on the modern African American basketball player please take a look at Young, Black, Rich, and Famous, by Todd Boyd.

June 26, 1996: Irish Journalist, Veronica Guerin, is shot in her car by drug dealers.

Guerin’s tireless fight against drug dealers in Ireland, ended up in her death, but left a significant mark on the Irish Parliament’s determent and punishment of criminals.  For another book about significant women in history please take a look at Give Me Eighty Men, by Shannon D. Smith

June 27, 1962: Paul Viding, Estonian poet dies today.

Viding was a significant writer who’s work had known influences of T.S. Eliot in it. If poetry is your thing, than you may be interested in Modern Archaist: Selected Poems by Osip Mandelstam  written by Osip Mandelstam.

Ok bloggers, you can find all these books and more at the University of Nebraska Press website. Please join us Tuesday for some more Trivia!